The dollar edged higher against major currencies, with the dollar index up 0.256%.
Crucial U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday that could cause a change in current market pricing for U.S. rate cuts later in the year was top of investors' minds as well.
US and Chinese data and an expected news conference by US President-elect Donald Trump in the coming week may shed some light on the state of the world's two biggest economies — and the outlook for relations between them.
India will outperform other emerging markets purely on back of good pick up seen in earnings this quarter, said Hartmut Issel, Head Equity & Credit APAC, CIO WM, UBS.
US stocks rallied along with global equities markets Tuesday but buying faded and what started the day as a strong rally became a rather squishy sell-off. However, the market closed mixed to higher.
Forex - AUD/USD holds steady after Australian, Chinese data
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.15 percent. Wall Street closed on slight losses on Monday, taking a breather from a recent rally.
Adrian Mowat of JPMorgan believes the slowdown in growth will continue unless the Chinese government comes out with another mini stimulus. He feels the Chinese government may announce another towards the end of the second quarter.
If market were to rerate sharply post elections then cyclical stocks could outperform, saysRakesh Arora, Head of Research, Macquarie Capital Securities. He believes Larsen and Toubro along with few private banks like Axis Bank and ICICI Bank are the stocks to own.
While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed about half a percent lower, the Dow managed to post its first weekly gain of the year. European markets too broadly ended higher.
Asian stocks mostly lower on U.S. shutdown, Chinese data
Forex - AUD/USD down slightly on Australian, Chinese data
Gold rises as traders focus on U.S., Chinese data
Global markets ended lower on Wednesday on indication that the Fed may gradually slowdown its bond buying programme. Our market will be eyeing key earnings like SBI, BHEL and Tata Steel.
Stephane Deo of UBS Investment Bank feels that the economic data is the main reason for markets getting spooked on Thursday.
World shares stabilised on Monday after three straight sessions of losses as firmer Chinese data helped to offset concerns about a possible US fiscal crisis and delays to an instalment of Greek aid.
European shares hovered near a one-month high and Asian stocks jumped on Thursday, as a slew of Chinese data brightened the outlook for the world economy.
China's second quarter growth data, which came in line with market forecasts, may have brought relief to investors who were expecting the worst, but one analyst says the data will do nothing to reverse the downtrend in the commodities sector.
The euro hovered near 3-1/2-month lows and shares fell on Thursday, with weak Chinese trade data stoking fears of slower growth and undermining risk appetite as European leaders struggled to contain a worsening debt crisis.
German government bond yields hit their lowest level since September on Tuesday and European shares fell sharply as investors returning from a long weekend switched from riskier to safer assets after surprisingly weak US jobs data.
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Forex - Dollar drops on euro rebound, Chinese data